413. KAYHAN KALHOR & AKBAR MORADI - In the Mirror of the Sky Kalhor & Moradi performing Kurdish music. Kemencheh, tanbur, percussion & voice. Great stuff.
414. ARDAVAN KAMKAR - Over the Wind Another disc of Kurdish music (question: who thought I'd have back to back discs of Kurdish music by different people? answer: not even me.) Kamkar plays the the santur, the persian hammered dulcimer. Sounds horrible, but it's not. Quite awesome really.
I thought my overlap count would never change. I think I'm up to 9 now. I might have to actually take my shoes off and count with my toes.
415. Giya Kancheli: Symphonies No. 6 & No. 7 Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra Jansug Kakhidze, conductor (no cover art available) Kancheli is from Georgia (as in next to Armenia, not next to Alabama) and his classical albums are the first I've ever seen come with a warning label. The dynamic shifts in his music are so abrupt that you'll think nothing is coming out of the speaker one second and then it'll be rattling your windows the next. The warning comes to prevent speaker damage as well as to prevent being startled.
417. GIYA KANCHELI - Trauerfarbenes Land For all of you ECM junkies out there, they've recorded a bunch of his work too. Of all the discs I've heard by him (I've heard more than the three I own), the ECM ones are the way to go. They are probably the best "art music" scouts on planet earth.
418. ELENI KARAINDROU - Music for "Trojan Women" by Euripides Interesting project. Kind of surreal and definately a kind of spacy modernism. I like it, but it's different. Good to hear stuff by Greek composers (not to mention female composers!) Another one for the ECM crowd.
419. KARMA CULTURE 2 - (various artists) 2 disc compilation of Indian electronic music. Some good stuff on it.
420. KEANE - Hopes and Fears This album grows on me more and more each day. Interesting that a band has reached this hight of popularity with no guitar. It's piano, drums and vocals. It's so catchy I'm almost ashamed to like it, but so good that I embrace it openly.
421. KEF TIME - Kef Time Armenian party music ('Kef' means 'party' in Armenian.) Very engergetic, rowdy and fun stuff. It incorporates elements of Turkish and Greek music at times as those are places Armenians have lived as well.
424. MARCEL KHALIFE & AL MAYADINE - Jadal Long piece for Arabic classical instruments. About 90 minutes. Virtuosity filled and well constructed. Modern art music from Lebanon.
425. MARCEL KHALIFE - Concerto al Andalus Concerto for oud & orchestra on Andalusian themes. Not something you hear everyday.
426. MARCEL KHALIFE - Caress I promoted a show by him on this tour. Nice guy though there was a bit of a language barrier. I have no Arabic skills. His English wasn't so hot, and my French was even worse. Thank goodness translators were around most of the time. We did this show about 6-8 months after September 11 and man oh man was it a logistical nightmare. 7 people in the group and 3 of them got denied visas (eventhough they were French citizens), we had to bust our tail to do all of this last minute stuff to land visas for them. It was crazy. Great show though, and a good disc. There were 350-400 people packed in that tiny sold out theatre absolutely going bananas (Khalife is a big star in Lebanon...and Birmingham has a pretty big Lebanese community.) It was trippy to be sitting in Alabama hearing hundreds of people singing and chanting in Arabic.
427. AASHISH KHAN - Rainy Season Ragas Music intended to be played during the rainy season, and that happens to be appropriate music in Florida right now.